football.

Football it is called throughout the world except for the great North American continent, which it is referred to as ‘soccer’. Dodgy as heck, but hey they already have a game that is called football, and for me it’s more like the gentlemen game of rugby. Except that it’s not, am I making sense here?

That is not what I am trying to say here, this entry is dedicated to the football team which I have supported since I was a kid. The other team in the Liverpool vicinity and it goes by the name of Everton F.C. For those of you who get it, and are currently laughing your socks off on the ground, please exercise control. For those, not in the know; the team is a perennial under-achieving team, often shadowed by their arch-nemesis, the richer and (they would like to think that they are) the over-achievers in the English Premier League. Okay maybe, I’m stretching the over-achievers bit a little. Heh. I take pleasure in every jibe over their supporters.

Derailing off the topic, this is about Everton and not the other team. Going to mention what is on my mind, on their current state. Not going to linger on the past, it is like the word itself, can’t live off the past and hope to progress. Everton currently has on their payroll, the biggest hype in the football-ing world, no not Freddy Adu, we’re talking about Wayne Rooney.

My thoughts are going all over the place again. It seems that I can’t focus long enough to write a thesis on the team, heh. It is an article that I read, recently on a formal complaint lodged by the team against another team’s supporters. The footballing body looks severely on racism, which includes chants by the supporters and the players themselves. So this African player that is playing for Everton said that the opposition supporters chanted “Black Bastard”, whenever he touched the ball. So the official league body had to look into this, and in their defense, the opposition team claimed *official press statement* that the crowd was chanting “Fat Bastard” towards Wayne Rooney (who is built rather stout), and not “Black Bastard”.

The first adjective may be different, but here I am sitting thinking, that the aforementioned club officially said its supporter called a player a fat bastard, and its okay? The reason is that it’s trying to escape punishment from the Football Association (FA) and so far there is no law or rule that says it can’t verbally abuse a player so long it’s not racially motivated.

The FA by the way has let this slide, claiming that it came from 4 separate locations in the stadium, and there was no collusion amongst them. I am dumb stricken all the same, so far my understanding is that, it’s all right to verbally taunt a player as in calling his a fat fuck, so long its not calling him a black fuck. That and you must do it, with small a small crowd at different locations in the stadium so there is not a chance for collusion. Oh by the way the FA couldn’t be conclusive whether it was ‘fat’ or ‘black’, it just so happened that small crowd(s) doesn’t constitute it to be a problem. This troubles me a lot, mainly due to the stance of the FA, and the opposition club’s official stance of its okay to abuse, so long it’s not discriminatory.
I was brought up to respect people of all colors; the feeling would then be mutual. That and it was never okay to be verbally abused by anyone, irregardless of whether they are motivated by racial slurs.